Yet you have not hearkened unto me,
says the LORD;
that you might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own harm.
All Commentaries on Jeremiah 25:7 Go To Jeremiah 25
Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius
AD 320
When the Jews often resisted wholesome precepts and departed from the divine law, going astray to the impious worship of false gods, then God filled just and chosen men with the Holy Spirit, appointing them as prophets in the midst of the people, by whom he might rebuke with threatening words the sins of the ungrateful people and nevertheless exhort them to repent of their wickedness. Unless they did this and, laying aside their vanities, returned to their God, it would come to pass that he would change his covenant, that is, bestow the inheritance of eternal life on foreign nations and collect to himself a more faithful people out of those who were aliens by birth. But they, when rebuked by the prophets, not only rejected their words but, being offended because they were scolded for their sins, killed the prophets with calculated tortures. All these things are sealed up and preserved in the sacred writings. For the prophet Jeremiah says, “I have sent to you my servants, the prophets. I sent them before light, and you hearkened not to me nor inclined your ears to hear when I said to you, ‘Return, you, every one from this evil way and from your wicked devices, and you shall dwell in that land that I have given to you and to your ancestors forever and ever. Do not go after strange gods to serve them, and do not provoke me to wrath by the works of your hands for afflicting you.’ ”
